


What are Cacturne anyway? Green, pointy, and creepy

by Rosencrantz



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Gen, Non-graphic death, cacturne has a hell of a pokedex entry, no poochyena were harmed in the making of this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-03 13:36:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21180311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosencrantz/pseuds/Rosencrantz
Summary: Team Rocket are scouring the desert for a legendary Pokemon to use in their plans. Teammates Nakamura and Chobei are overheated, pissed off, and on their tenth mysterious tomb.





	What are Cacturne anyway? Green, pointy, and creepy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DoreyG](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoreyG/gifts).

> Thank you to Rain for the beta!
> 
> **Sapphire:** _If a traveler is going through a desert in the thick of night, Cacturne will follow in a ragtag group. The Pokémon are biding their time, waiting for the traveler to tire and become incapable of moving._  
**FireRed:** _It lives in deserts. It becomes active at night when it hunts for prey exhausted from the desert's heat._

Another day, another legendary Pokemon.

Or at least, Chobei thought to herself, there _should_ be a legendary pokemon in these ruins. But there should have been one at the last one too. And the one before that. So far they'd been chased by a load of Yamask and eaten a lot of sand and still didn't have a Regigigas.

She sat and wiped her forehead. The desert was _hot_. And her partner, Nakamura, had the water. And where was Nakamura? No idea. She said she had to get something from the jeep but _apparently_ Nakamura thought she was too high ranking to come back and help dig.

"Probably taking a nap while I do all the work," muttered Chobei. She picked up her crowbar and headed towards where the jeep was, past a dune. They'd had a devil of a time finding the ruins in the first place. It felt like they'd been wandering in circles all morning before finding the edge of a doorway peeking out of the sand. Chobei had used her Poochyena to dig it out before it had hidden in its ball in protest at the hard labour. She'd punish it later, but there was enough exposed that she could start prying open the door.

If it would _open_, which it wouldn't, so Nakamura had better get off her lazy ass and come help Chobei.

When Chobei went around the dune, the jeep was empty.

Where was Nakamura?

Chobei looked out to the horizon. There was nowhere to _run_ out here, no matter how determined you were to shirk work. 

In a haze, she could make out a figure. 

"Nakamura, you waste, get over here and dig!" she called at it. 'Nakamura' didn't move. Chobei went closer, patting the crowbar in her hand. When she reported this dereliction of duty to Giovanni, she was definitely going to get made team lead over Nakamura, but that didn't mean Chobei couldn't take an early victory and add a few hits first.

Except when she got closer, it was _not_ Nakamura. 

It was a Cacturne. 

Cacturne stood in the harsh sunlight, pointy green arms raised towards the sun and totally unmoving.

"Ugh. Never mind," said Chobei, turning around. Useless pokemon. She was getting really sick of them on this assignment. She walked back to the jeep. At least it had water.

The water was gone. 

She looked at the sand, remembering that maybe she could _track_ Nakamura. But the sand was covered in hundreds of indentations, there was no way of telling which set was Nakamura's path.

The sun was boiling by now. 

Chobei went to hide in the shade of the hole her Poochyena had dug. Inside the tomb would probably be cooler, but she couldn't open the door.

She looked up. 

There was a second figure on the horizon. Was that Nakamura? 

But as she watched, it didn't move. Another Cacturne, probably. 

The day passed. Chobei felt like she was turning to sand.

Every time she looked up, there seemed to be another Cacturne on the horizon. 

There was no sign of Nakamura. 

She needed to get to the radio on the jeep and call for backup. She wasn't going to make it without water and Nakamura had abandoned her to die, clearly. If she _ever_ got a hold of Nakamura, Nakamura was a dead woman. She'd have all of Team Rocket on Nakamura!

She got up and stumbled to the jeep. She had kept her Poochyena in the ball. No reason for them both to cook. 

There were a lot of Cacturne. Useless things. Chobei had always hated plant pokemon.

She sat in the jeep and started calling out her distress signal. A response came. Told her to stay put, another team was coming. 

There were so many Cacturne now. It seemed almost like a cactus forest.

The sun set. It was blissfully cool now. Chobei finally began to drift off.

Chobei had barely laid her head down when she heard the sand shift and opened her eyes sleepily. "Nakamura, if that's you, I'm going to beat you black and blue," she snarled. She lifted her head.

In the dark, the eyes of the many Cacturne glowed as they crowded in on the jeep.

When the rescue group of Rockets arrived, the jeep was empty.

Chobei and Nakamura were declared missing in action.


End file.
